Step Inside a Stylish London Townhouse, The place Colour and Parisian Allure Assist Treatment the Blues

The house had its charm. But could it be an antidote to dreary London weather?

Wider than the typical London townhome, the Notting Hill abode afforded the type of lateral living that the wife had grown accustomed to from years spent dwelling in Paris. And the rear of the house opened out onto a communal park, which, during lockdown, would prove to be a haven for the family of four and their Australian labradoodle. But the ultimate selling point was the light—a natural antidepressant against the gray London sky.

“The environment of the house is so important for my mood,” says the mother of the family. “I needed the place to be very happy.”

And so K&H Design, the maestros of the home’s interiors, said “let there be light.” It streams in through a large window on the main living level, pouring into the rest of the first floor starting first thing in the morning. To make that light extend even further, K&H opened up the previously closed-off entry with glazing, creating views to the garden from the moment you walk through the cardamom-yellow front door.

But beyond a happy interior, the homeowners sought a practical one, with a flow that could support an active family. In some areas, like the primary bedroom, this priority shines through: Cleverly placing the bed in the center of the room and floating a wall with built-in storage behind it, the designers devised an area for the husband to quietly get dressed for early-morning meetings while the wife snoozes away. (As a matter of course, K&H studies the sleep and work patterns of their clients to help smooth away pain points in the daily routine.) In the children’s rooms, toys and clothes get tucked away into tidy, generous built-in storage.

“Whenever we can, we always go to the client’s home and actually measure how many linear meters of storage they need,” explains Katie Glaister, cofounder of K&H Design. In the case of this family, that meant extra space for the husband’s collection of guitars, and shelving crafted at the perfect height to display his collection of comic books.

Sloughing off the stuffiness of a more formal interior, the family pursued a mostly open main living area, opting for a bistro-like breakfast room over a traditional dining room. The space leans into an artsy brasserie vibe, with a cognac leather banquette and rattan chairs from Maison Drucker. In the adjoining kitchen, the designers continued the theme, installing a mosaic tile floor and accessorizing the island with more rattan barstools.

“They are, you know, very French—very international, very cool, very colorful,” says K&H cofounder Henry Miller-Robinson. “They wanted to bring some of that Parisian charm, but they very much also wanted this to be their Notting Hill London home.”

Part of K&H’s job was to act as editor to the homeowners’ eclectic tastes. “I had lots of ideas and mood boards and pictures,” the wife says. “I like the Scandinavian look, but I also like it super messy, super English, and I like the Parisian look, and I like colors—I’m all over the place. I needed people to keep me focused.”

It’s safe to say that K&H handled the job with aplomb. Throughout, the home balances bold elements—a scarlet, tiger-emblazoned rug in the living room, a candy-colored toilet in the kids’ bathroom—with more serene surroundings, thanks in part to a masterful installation of color. On the ground floor, where furnishings are the most exuberant, that meant finding the perfect shades of white for the walls, trim, and paneling. (Edward Bulmer’s Plain White was a hero hue.)

Variations on a verdigris color run throughout the home, from the mint of the entry trim, to the celadon of the Pyralave-top kitchen island, to the blue-green of the primary bedroom. But finding hues that activate in the cool London light isn’t a straightforward task, explains Miller-Robinson, K&H’s color whisperer.

“If you take a blue—a lovely Mediterranean Greek blue, or a deep sort of Moroccan Majorelle blue, they’re simply colors that won’t illuminate with the light that we have in London, they won’t have that beautiful essence,” he says. “It’s really about finding the more sensitive, slightly more muted, but still brightened tones that will respond to the slightly duller light that we generally have in London and the U.K.” K&H went in and took colors one step further, adding pops of high-impact color through elements like a kelly green powder room and a jubilant, multihued stair runner. The palettes they developed for the home will also have staying power, explains Glaister: They will be the basis for K&H’s first product line.

“Do you think those children are going to grow up adoring color, Henry?” Glaister muses about the clients’ kids. Both designers agree that, if they do, it would ultimately be the mother’s influence. As for those gray London days? They seem to have met their match, says Miller-Robinson: “It’s just such a happy house.”